On the Threshold – St. Nick’s News May 16, 2025

Full St. Nick’s News for May 16, 2025

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that the rhythm of life is marked by a constant turning—one thing ending, another beginning. We live, always, somewhere between the two.

This week, our children and teachers begin to pack up their backpacks one last time for the school year, closing out months of lessons and friendships, rhythms and routines. And here at St. Nicholas, we prepare to come to the font once again, baptizing new members into the Body of Christ. One ending. One beginning. And both holy.

Jesus understood these thresholds. In Sunday’s Gospel, The Gospel of John, Jesus gathers his disciples around the table, there is a sense that something is ending. Judas has just slipped out into the night. Jesus tells the others that he will soon be leaving them. You can almost feel the weight in the room—the ache of goodbye beginning to settle in.

And yet, right there in the midst of it, Jesus gives them something to carry forward—a new commandment, as he calls it. “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (John 13:34)

This is how we cross the thresholds of life—school year to summer, childhood to adulthood, fear to courage, death to life—by loving one another along the way.

This Sunday, when we gather around the waters of baptism, we will hear echoes of Jesus’ words again. We will promise to continue in the apostles’ teaching, to seek and serve Christ in all persons, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. These are promises that stretch across every beginning and every ending.

So as we come to the close of this school year, and step into the wide-open space of summer, may we carry this holy rhythm with us:
To honor what has been.
To embrace what is to come.
And to walk gently, lovingly, together—right here in the middle.

I am so honored and blessed to be with you at every threshold…

God’s Peace, Love, and Blessings,
Beth+